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Comment by shambolic | Hacker News Reader

The biggest problem is: where is the money going to come from?

Even if you guarantee a rate of return, somebody still needs to finance the buildout.

Second issue is, how will infrastructure that is installed, but not used be paid for? Take rate is rarely 100%, so who is going to pay for that part and how?

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Governments would pay for this via taxes. At least that's one way. So in the end all of us would be paying for internet, and I guess if there were a way to get internet at 1gig up/1 gig down with no data caps that was very reliable for under 100 bucks a month I would do it. But the build-out costs a lot as you've stated so the capital would have to come from somewhere and perhaps that'd come from infrastructure spending.

We can't convince voters to raise taxes/utility rates enough to fix crumbling dams, lead water pipes, and overflowing sewers.

Unfortunately I happen to agree. Until a disaster happens that the public can be convinced is linked directly to a lack of infrastructure spending I think nothing will happen.

That's very true. Unfortunately, if you threatened to take away their Facebook I think they'd suddenly reconsider.

Neo-con media has framed this very effectively, and the populace now operates within that frame

It's not neo-cons. It's liberals too. God forbid we raise water rates so the water utility can replace aging lead pipes--"what will happen to grandma if water rates go up???!"

Depends on the locality; my city just raised taxes to address infrastructure needs in schools and storm sewers. It's probably not a coincidence that they are also looking at municipal fiber.

If you can guarantee a rate of return, getting money from any bank sounds easy. And if take rate is 60%, then those that take the offer have to pay 100%/60%=166% of what they would have payed with a 100% take rate. Of course that requires estimating the take rate, but that's an everyday buisiness problem.

> If you can guarantee a rate of return, getting money from any bank sounds easy.

Sadly this isn't true. Banks lend you money if you have collateral.

> And if take rate is 60%, then those that take the offer have to pay 100%/60%=166% of what they would have payed with a 100% take rate.

That only works if the customers are willing to pay 166%. The shit really hits the fan if you get the take rate wrong and your costs exceed what your customers have agreed to pay.

Just set up a special district: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3saU5racsGE

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